EPFL Junior Faculty Development Programme for African Scholars 2022

The Junior Faculty Development (JFD) programme is the first programme launched within the framework of the “Excellence in Africa” initiative.

It is pairing up early-stage professors in Africa with EPFL professors, providing funding for jointly-designed research projects over a period of 4 to 5 years. In the course of their project, the Africa-based professors will complete a secondment of up to one year in the laboratory of their colleague at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicant must be employed or due to be hired by an African higher education institution.
• Must have earned a PhD degree between January 1, 2011 and November 16, 2022.
• Must have an outstanding research and publication track record.
• Must submit a research project that comprises an activity that falls in whole or in part of current domains of scientific or technological research activity at EPFL.

Benefits

Eligible costs include and are limited to:

• Personnel costs
  • Personnel costs at the host institution of the applicant, but not the salary of the Junior Faculty grantee, who must be employed and paid by his/her African host institution.
  • Personnel costs for a maximum of CHF 210,000 for the full duration of the project for personnel employed on the research project in the laboratory of the EPFL professor.
• Travel costs
  • Travel, including participation in conferences and workshops and travel linked to the collaboration.
• Equipment and research funds
  • Scientific equipment(s) and other infrastructure of durable value.
  • Research funds, including consumables, direct costs of infrastructure use, computing time and data access, publication costs, and justified expenses of third parties (subcontracting).
• Living allowance for secondment at EPFL
  • A living allowance may be approved if there is a written official confirmation from the host institution in Africa that a living allowance for secondment at EPFL cannot be covered by the host institution.
• Institutional contribution
  • No overheads are allowed for this programme; instead, an amount of maximum CHF 20,000 per year can be dedicated to a defined project aimed at the betterment of the Junior Faculty grantee’s host institution.

Selection Process

• Shortlisted applicants who are successfully matched with an EPFL professor will be notified early 2023 and invited to submit a full proposal for Stage 2.
• Final decisions will be announced in summer 2023.

How to Apply